wong jowo

Yen sira kasinungan ngelmu kang marakake akeh wong seneng, aja sira malah rumangsa pinter, jalaran menawa Gusti mundhut bali ngelmu kang marakake sira kaloka iku, sira uga banjur kaya wong sejene, malah bisa aji godhong jati aking.(Bila anda mendapat anugrah ilmu yang membuat banyak orang senang, janganlah kamu merasa pintar, sebab apabila Tuhan mengambil lagi ilmu yang menyebabkan anda terkenal itu, anda akan menjadi orang biasa lagi, malah lebih bermanfaat daun yang kering)

Showing posts with label English Tag. Show all posts

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X's Promises

On August 29th, 1988 before the departure of his father (the late Hamengku Buwono IX) to America for a medication, Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X said "Yes!" to him. His father asked Herjuno Darpito (the real name of HB X) to promise him to fulfill the four following missions:

to shelter everyone no matter if they don't like Herjuno.
not to break the state's rules.
to be more brave to say the truth: the right one is right, and the wrong one is wrong!
not to have any ambition but to make people prosperous.

Sri Sultan told this in a TV talk-show "KickAndy" at MetroTV when Andy questioned him about his possibility of being chosen in the election next 2009. More of the interview can be seen on KickAndy's site.

No doubt, just like father like son, Sri Sultan HB X is a charismatic leader, not only culturally but also politically.

I just want to underline the promises as a struggle to live wisdoms inherited by his father, the former King of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat. It's so obvious that the items are deeply from the heart of a real Javanese. The wisdoms are based on the Javanese ethics. There’s a Javanese traditional saying about how to run the role of living; it is as a vision and mission of man’s life:
“Sepi ing pamrih rame ing gawe, narima ing pandum, mamayu hayuning bawana” – , to go primarily for none of self-intention while working with others pro-actively, to be grateful to the given role within the universe, and to take part of beautifying the world’s beauty.
Humbly the father said to his son to be "more" brave to say the truth. He did not tell him how brave he was to tell the truth so far. Instead, he wanted him to be "more" than what his father did. It is a sacred mission for my Sultan to fulfill his promises.

In God's providence he will, I believe. ***

Link to Jogjakarta Special Province: click here!

Monday, October 8, 2007

Life is a pilgrimage to "The One Determined Direction"

To Javanese people “life” is a “journey” (laku) of mankind coming back to God, The Sangkan-Paraning-Dumadi, The Alfa and Omega. The basic principal of laku according to Javanese is mystical union with God (manunggaling kawula-Gusti). God is understood as Sang Hyang Antaya that cannot be imagined at all (tan kena-kinayangapa) but emptiness (awang-uwung) or mysterious (gaib). The man's journey of coming back to God, then, must be accompanied by ascetic life to purify heart and soul from all kinds of egoism. Everybody must be free from self-profit and reward (sepi ing pamrih). This way of purification will guide them into their original being that is as a spark-fire of God.

Various conceptions of the mystery of God enable distortions and conterfeitings against the true laku to take place. This should become an important thing that Javanese should be aware of! The answers of many questions around the existence of God and man (such as: Who is God? Who is man) that Javanese wisdom has tried to find out seem to be completed from time to time. And it is possible as the Javanese are sincretic in philosophy as well as in religiousity. The characteristic has designed the Javanese culture as a culture that is easy to adapt those of others without loosing the core.

What is the core of the Javanese culture? To be honest I myself still have to find out more in the traditions I've received and lived up to now and forever. It is a sense (or feeling, rasa, taste) of being Javanese. While I am a Javanese, I am a Christian also. That's the matter. However, I feel okey since I know the faith I believe in. You know, I'm proud of being a Javanese as well as a Christian. I know how to critizise myself as a Javanese and how to critizise myself as a Christian. I am living a process of inculturation of Christian faith in a sense of Javanese. Which one is to be the prior? It's a dialectical attitude of living. That's the core of my own culture!

There are many religions exist among the Javanese. So there are many ways to live as Javanese. As a result, there are many "cultures" among the Javanese people, and they claim to be Javanese! And yes, we are!

The one thing that unites us the Javanese is the wisdom of Sangkan-Paraning-Dumadi, though each of us has specific conceptions according to the faith of each religion. And the tradition of laku itself has been interpreted and completed in each religion's tradition. The wisdom from the Javanese esoteric knowledge has preserved the moral to be completed: sepi ing pamrih, rame ing gawe, mamayu hayuning bawana. That's the way (laku) to go the journey. And as the aim of the journey is union with God, it's rather a pilgrimage than just a traveling or moreover an adventure.

The Javanese has a pretty interpretation from the pronounciation of the word "ziarah" (= pilgrimage). The wording of "ziarah" is "ji-arah", This word abbreviates two words: "siji" (one) and "arah" (direction). Thus "ziarah" (pilgrimage) is so-interpreted as "siji sing diarah" - just one determined direction - that is God, the Sangkan-Paraning-Dumadi, The Alfa and Omega of all beings! When the union happens, the universe (macrocosmos and microcosmos) would be so beautiful! How to achieve the state is a set of unending efforts to beautify the world (universe) intensively and extensively, no matter what religion!

And that will be the crown of human dignity according to the Javanese perception. ***

Saturday, September 29, 2007

It's not about Java-Script at all!

"Born Javanese" is planned to become my sharing site about Javanese: language, culture, arts, people, etc. As I know there are few people knowing about Java Island (people and its culture) instead of Java-Script, so I make this blog. It's just another blog about Javanese people. And as it is about Javanese, so I'll use Javanese or Indonesian more than English. As possible as I can try, I'll wrote in English also. Hopefully you foreigners wouldn't be disappointed of this and can still enjoy and found something from it.

Welcome to my country Java wherein I was born 35 years ago!

This is just my introduction to start my sharing.
Thanks for dropping by, and please enjoy my blog with my up-coming articles.

Best regards,

Kandar Ag.

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